Tell me again why you haven't Opti Coated your wheels....
 

A client of mine picked up a Dinan modified BMW X5. She had it for 6 months before calling me and the wheels were a freaking disaster. With the upgraded brakes, this truck pukes brake dust. I decided for her that we were going to Opti Coat the wheels. Well, I pulled the wheels and properly prepped and coated them with Opti Coat about 8 weeks ago and then purposely kept putting this client off so I could let the brake dust build up. This truck is a daily driver for her as well as taxi-ing the kids around. After two months there was a nice layer of brake dust accumulated. Please excuse the poor pics as it was POURING rain out so I used my iPhone instead of dragging out my camera.

Here are the wheels upon arrival. This is one of the fronts.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...st/photo-1.jpg

Before washing, i just swiped my finger across the wheel. Wiped right off.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...st/photo-2.jpg

After cleaning with nothing more than a wheel brush and soap/water. Once. To say I was blown away by how easy the wheels cleaned up would be an understatement. To clean these wheels every two weeks would an absolute joy. Having said that, there were a few tiny black dots of caked on brake dust on the lip of the wheel. Just for fun I used my wheel acid at 3:1. Sprayed it on and wiped it off with virtually no dwell time. After rinsing, the spots were gone and the water was sheeting off those areas as well as the rest of the wheel. :)
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...st/photo-3.jpg

Another pic showing how clean the barrels are. Keep in mind these were hit once with a wheel brush and soap/water. NO WHEEL CLEANER OR APC EVER TOUCHED THESE WHEELS. Even the brake calipers cleaned up with just a light brushing and rinse. Nice
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...st/photo-4.jpg

I did that with the faces of my truck wheels and they clean up super easy. I didn't do the barrels as I was out of acid and they are in ROUGH shape from previous owner.

great demonstration of the protection that opti-coat offers! good stuff. the german cars with the brake dust are the worst too

I'll tell you one thing I wish I had, those brake calipers

a BMW with grotesque brake dust .. haha, what else is new :P

All German cars are like that it seems to me.

Well done Ken! Have you tried applying the coating with an air gun/brush? It really lays down a nice thick layer for wheels, and helps get into the tight areas.

Cheers,
GREG

Ken you are welcome! :happyanim:

That Ceros is super nice. Have you got to "try" a Rupes polisher?

I'll have to look to see the info about the air gun.....Chad Raskovich of Raskys Detailing uses one and LOVES it. You want all the nitty gritty contact him.

Cheers,
GREG

I don't think I understand the point here. Is it that opti-coat makes the wheels easier to clean or is it that brake dust doesn't really stick to opti-coated wheels in the first place?

The reason I ask is because my wheels (yes, on my German car) aren't opti-coated and they clean up unbelievably easy. If opti-coat helps prevent brake dust from sticking in the first place, I might be interesting in going that route. Then again, I don't have a huge brake dust problem with my wheels in the first place, but if I can prevent some of the brake dust from sticking, that would be a win anyway.

Because the Camry has hubcaps. That's why. :D

Looks good though. I remember spending a lot of time pulling the Weld wheels off of my Mustang and cleaning each one, along with a lot of Nevr Dull afterward.

You can use either one. Simply add the IPA to a spray bottle with water to get an approximate 15% solution. Also, I should add that if you have very scratch sensitive paint, testing the IPA on a panel first is recommended. On some softer paints you can pick up light marring during the IPA wipe-down